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When my dad died, SS pulled his payment from earlier that month out of his account, something most grieving spouses won't expect.
I believe our neighbor escaped this shock as her husband passed on the 3rd of the month; early enough that his monthly payment would not yet have been sent.
When my Sister passed on the 16th of the month, her SS benefit was recaptured.
A 72yo neighbor became a widow early last month when her 83yo husband sucummed after 12+ years of fighting multiple cancers and cardiac disease. My wife and I spent a couple hours visiting with the widowed neighbor today.
• Her SS has been increased to match his previous amount, but this is effectively the same as losing her entire SS benefit amount.
• She will receive one-half of his pension benefit.
Needless to say, the only recurring household bill diminishing after his death is groceries. Out-of-pocket medical and prescription drug costs will also decrease.
But the overall big picture sure looks financially bleak for her in the future.
We all neeed to develop a financial plan to ensure continuity of life-style for our spouses if we predecease them.
This is tough. But I'm sure that your neighbor was aware that this situation was coming, her husband had been ill a long time.
Hopefully, they have a paid off house and car. If it is all too much for her, she can start getting the house ready to list within the next year or so and downsize to something smaller and easier maintenance. Men tend to have a lot of big, heavy stuff that their wives don't need or know how to use. When she is ready to go through those tools and equipment it would be great if someone who is familiar with them helps her to figure out how much to list them for and helps her to move them around - they are heavy!
I think a lot of lower earning spouses, mostly women, find themselves in this kind of dilemma. It's good to be proactive when at all possible.
I guess whether the SS payment gets clawed back would also depend what date their SS payment is made too. Mine comes on the last Wednesday of the month due to my birthday.
We all neeed to develop a financial plan to ensure continuity of life-style for our spouses if we predecease them.
Since elder women are the most affected by lowered financial security when their husband dies first it is up to both of them to make sure she has enough for her old age.
Younger women need to manage their retirement funds separately from their spouses retirement funds. Divorce is a good reason for having your own money but death happens for all of us.
I find the working class comment weird also. My parents were blue collar workers who saved for retirement in addition to my dad’s pension. Back then interest rates on bonds were high so that’s how they invested. My mom got half my dad’s pension plus SS and had her investments. This wasn’t unusual and most of her friends had the same situation and most outlived their husbands.
Location: When things get hot they expand. Im not fat. Im hot.
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It puzzles me when women don't prepare for this. Statistics have shown that we often outlive our men. And in some marriages the man is older so there's already a head start there.
I subscribed to the prepare for the worst but hope for the best camp. I based our finances on only having one income so that whoever was left standing would be okay. Anything over that I invested. Hopefully we would to be old geezers together but that didnt happen. So when my husband passed away I was financially prepared.
Dear mods (or anyone who may know the answer): is there a way to reply to a reputation comment? So many people are leaving me nice words of condolences in reputation comments, but I don't know if there is a way to thank to an individual comment. If not, I just want to say in this post that I am very grateful to everyone for the kind words. My method of dealing with intense feelings is to separate myself from them, something I had learned how to do early in my profession. I realize there is a richness of experience in letting yourself feel fully every sadness and pain, but that is too hard on me, so I just cut myself off, and concentrate on logistics of the situation (in this case, the small funeral in Europe and the administrative aftermath of death).
elnrgby, I was Posting a few minutes after you. My condolences too. As one Poster said, self care. My prayers for comfort, Shalom are with you at this time.
Grateful to MI-Roger for being for his neighbor. People stay away, Not knowing what to say or do. Thank you for the reminder to ask what what may seem personal questions.
My husband and I prepared, though didn't realize I wouldn't get a check the next month. Duh ! Brain dead. At the end of the month, dear older brother-in-law sent me a check, the day I went to the post office I had offered a prayer that day.
Grief affects everyone differently. Be sure to have a months expenses in your savings.
A 72yo neighbor became a widow early last month when her 83yo husband sucummed after 12+ years of fighting multiple cancers and cardiac disease. My wife and I spent a couple hours visiting with the widowed neighbor today.
• Her SS has been increased to match his previous amount, but this is effectively the same as losing her entire SS benefit amount.
• She will receive one-half of his pension benefit.
Needless to say, the only recurring household bill diminishing after his death is groceries. Out-of-pocket medical and prescription drug costs will also decrease.
But the overall big picture sure looks financially bleak for her in the future.
We all neeed to develop a financial plan to ensure continuity of life-style for our spouses if we predecease them.
Well, this is something people have to plan for.
My sister and her husband had to make a choice on their public pension. She wanted him to choose the full amount which would have ended after he died. Looking at his health and weight, I said you better reconsider that. I think they ended up going with the 75% or she gets 50%. I can't remember. But lo and behold, he got pancreatic cancer at 62 and died in 3 weeks.
That widow should have planned around that possibliity.
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